Gate valve
A gate valve that opens or closes opening parts of a valve box with a valve plate includes a valve rod that moves upward or downward and tilt inside the valve box; a drive mechanism that moves the valve rod upward or downward by a predetermined stroke and tilts the valve rod; a stopper mechanism that includes a spring return type stopper pin, and in which, when compressed air is supplied, a pin rod of the stopper pin moves forward in a horizontal direction, and a cam plate connected to the valve rod or a load receiving roller attached to the cam plate collides with the pin rod to regulate an upward movement of the valve rod. When the supply of the compressed air is stopped, the pin rod moves backward in the horizontal direction due to a reaction force of the spring, so that the cam plate or the load receiving roller does not collide with the pin rod and the regulation on the upward movement of the valve rod is released; and a vibration reducing device that reduces vibration.
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This application is a continuation of International Application No.: PCT/JP2019/018240, which was filed on May 7, 2019, and which is herein incorporated by reference.
TECHNICAL FIELDThe present invention relates to a double-sided seal type gate valve installed between two chambers.
BACKGROUNDConventionally, as a valve of this type, a gate valve disclosed in the following Patent Document 1 is known. This gate valve includes a valve disk, a valve rod, a first moving device, and a linking device. The valve rod tilts with a stroke end of the linking device as a fulcrum point, and the valve disk is pressed against a valve seat. In the middle of a stroke of the linking device, a stopper for stopping a stroke operation of the linking device and a second moving device for moving the stopper to allow the stopper to stop the stroke operation are provided. Further, when the valve disk moves to a stroke position not facing the valve seat, the stopper is moved by the second moving device to stop the stroke operation of the linking device, and, in this state, the first moving device causes the valve disk to tilt, and the valve disk is pressed in the same direction as the valve seat.
RELATED ART Patent Document(s)
- [Patent Doc. 1] JP Laid-Open Patent Application Publication 2002-303372
According to the conventional gate valve disclosed in Patent Document 1, a piston cylinder device as the second moving device causes the stopper to protrude to stop the stroke operation of the linking device. In this case, the stopper stops the movement of the linking device by colliding with a pivot (fulcrum point), and thus, there is a problem that vibration occurs due to an impact during the collision. However, no measure has been taken against this vibration in the conventional gate valve.
Therefore, the present invention has been accomplished in order to solve such a problem, and is intended to realize, in a double-sided seal type gate valve, stable sealing performance when the valve is closed by a valve plate by reducing vibration that occurs during operation.
SUMMARYA gate valve, disclosed in the application, that opens or closes opening parts provided on both sides of a valve box with a valve plate arranged inside the valve box, includes a valve rod that is connected to the valve plate and is supported to be able to move upward or downward and tilt inside the valve box; a drive mechanism that is provided outside the valve box and moves the valve rod upward or downward by a predetermined stroke and tilts the valve rod; a stopper mechanism that includes a spring return type stopper pin provided in middle of the stroke of the drive mechanism, and in which, when compressed air is supplied, a pin rod of the stopper pin moves forward in a horizontal direction orthogonal to a stroke direction of the valve rod against a spring force of a spring, and a cam plate connected to the valve rod or a load receiving roller attached to the cam plate collides with the pin rod to regulate an upward movement of the valve rod, and, on the other hand, when the supply of the compressed air is stopped, the pin rod moves backward in the horizontal direction due to a reaction force of the spring, so that the cam plate or the load receiving roller does not collide with the pin rod and the regulation on the upward movement of the valve rod is released; and a vibration reducing device that reduces vibration generated when the valve rod is operated by the drive mechanism.
As the vibration reducing device, the pin rod of the stopper pin may be subjected to slit-processing or counterbore-processing to reduce an impact during a collision with the cam plate or the load receiving roller.
As the vibration reducing device, a delay circuit may be provided that sets a speed, at which the valve plate starts to move away from a valve seat surface of the valve box when the valve is opened, to a low speed.
A valve plate surface of the valve plate may tilt such that an O-ring fixed to the valve plate is parallelly pressed against a valve seat.
According to the gate valve of the present invention, the following effects are achieved. By adopting the stopper mechanism that regulates or releases the regulation on the upward movement of the valve rod by moving forward or backward by supplying compressed air or stopping the supply of the compressed air, it is not necessary to control the stopping of the valve rod at a predetermined position by adjusting a pressure. Further, by providing the vibration reducing device that reduces the vibration generated during the operation of the valve rod, the sealing performance when the valve is closed by the valve plate can be stabilized by suppressing the vibration during the operation, and dust generation can be suppressed.
In the following, an embodiment of the present invention is described in detail with reference to the drawings.
As illustrated in
Elongated opening parts (a first opening part 7 and a second opening part 8) for allowing a substrate to pass through are respectively provided on left and right walls of the valve box 2. A process chamber (not illustrated in the drawings) is connected to an outer wall of the first opening part 7, and a transfer chamber (not illustrated in the drawings) is connected to an outer wall of the second opening part 8. Then, a substrate transferred from the transfer chamber to the process chamber through the valve box 2 is kept in a closed environment by closing the gate valve 1, and, inside the process chamber, various treatments such as heat, gas, and plasma treatments are performed for film formation.
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
The valve rod 4 penetrates a center of a bonnet flange 16 that covers a bottom surface of the valve box 2, and extends to the outside of the valve box 2. At an intermediate position of the valve rod 4, a rod guide 17 that supports the valve rod 4 and guides movement of the valve rod 4 is provided. Further, an expandable and contractible metal bellows 18 such as a welding bellows or a molded bellows is attached between the rod guide 17 and the bonnet flange 16 so as to cover around the valve rod 4, and the valve rod 4 is completely shielded from the outside.
A fulcrum roller 19 is provided above the rod guide 17, and is rotatably supported by a roller guide 20 that supports the valve box 2. Further, a direction switching roller 21 is provided at a lower end of the valve rod 4. As illustrated in
When the air cylinder 27 is driven by the drive mechanism 5 having the above-described configuration, the valve rod 4 moves upward or downward a predetermined stroke via the cam 22 linked to the cam plate 24, and, thereby, the valve plates 3 attached to the valve rod 4 move to a predetermined height in the valve box 2 and stop. Further, when the direction switching roller 21 is positioned at an upper end position (center) of the cam groove 23, the valve rod 4 stands at a center of the valve box 2; when the direction switching roller 21 is in a middle position (left side) of the cam groove 23, the valve rod 4 rotates around the fulcrum roller 19 and tilts toward the right side; and, when the direction switching roller 21 is at a lower end position (right side) of the cam groove 23, the valve rod 4 rotates around the fulcrum roller 19 and tilts toward the left side. As a result, at the upper end position of the cam groove 23, as illustrated in
As illustrated in
On end surfaces of the cam plate 24 facing the stopper pins 30, the load receiving rollers 29 are respectively installed at positions corresponding to those of the pin rods 36. Further, as a vibration reducing device, front ends of the pin rods 36 are subjected to slit-processing to relax an impact during a collision with the load receiving rollers 29 and are each provided with a slit 40 formed by a cut in a horizontal direction as illustrated in
As illustrated in
On the other hand, when the supply of the compressed air from the solenoid valve 38 is stopped, as illustrated in
In the above, the structure of the gate valve 1 of the present embodiment is described. Next, an operation thereof is described.
As illustrated in
Here, in order to reach the “CLOSE 1” state in which the process chamber side is closed, compressed air is supplied from the solenoid valve 38. As a result, the pin rods 36 of the stopper pins 30 move forward in the horizontal direction, and the front ends of the pin rods 36 protrude from the end surfaces of the rod cover 32. Further, in
Then, as illustrated in
Next, the direction switching roller 21 starts to move along the cam groove 23 to start a sealing operation. In this case, the load receiving roller 29 collides with the pin rods 36, and the direction switching roller 21 moves to the middle position (left side) of the cam groove 23 and causes the valve rod 4 to tilt to the right side. As a result, as illustrated in
When the valve is re-opened, the state of the valve rod 4 changes in the order of
As illustrated in
Here, in order to reach the “CLOSE 2” state in which the transfer chamber side is closed, the supply of the compressed air from the solenoid valve 38 is stopped. As a result, the pin rods 36 of the stopper pins 30 move backward in the horizontal direction, and the front ends of the pin rods 36 retract to the end surfaces of the rod cover 32. Further, by driving the air cylinder 27, the entire cam plate 24 is pushed up from below by a force of the compressed air, and, while compressing the coil spring 26, the valve rod 4 moves upward a predetermined stroke via the cam 22 connected to the cam plate 24, and, as illustrated in
Further, since the load receiving rollers 29 of the cam plate 24 do not collide with the front ends of the pin rods 36 and the regulation of the valve rod 4 is released, the valve rod 4 moves upward to the stroke end of the air cylinder 27. In doing so, the direction switching roller 21 starts to move along the cam groove 23 and starts a maintenance operation. In this case, as illustrated in
In the “CLOSE 2” state, when the maintenance flange 15 of the valve box 2 is removed to open the lid, and the bolt 14 illustrated in
When the valve is re-opened, the state of the valve rod 4 changes in the order of
That is, a valve opening and closing operation during maintenance is a reciprocating operation of from
Further, the gate valve 1 of the present embodiment is provided with a delay circuit as a vibration reducing device that sets a speed, at which the valve plates 3 start to move away from valve seat surfaces of the valve box 2 when the valve is opened, to a low speed.
As described above, in the present embodiment, as a means for stopping the valve rod 4 at a predetermined position, the stopper mechanism 6 is provided without using a 3-position stop air cylinder, and, by supplying or stopping the supply of the compressed air from the solenoid valve 38, the pin rods 36 of the stopper pins 30 move forward or backward to regulate or release regulation on the upward movement of the valve rod 4. The stopper pins 30 normally protrude and are set to retract during maintenance, and stop the load receiving rollers 29 as force points with the pin rods 36 to change the direction of the force acting on the valve plates 3 as the point of action, and thereby, can switch the sealing direction between the opening parts 7, 8 on the front and rear sides depending on the stopping position of the pin rods 36. Therefore, there is no need to perform control by adjusting a pressure when the valve rod 4 is stopped at an intermediate sealing position, and thus, the sealing performance when the valve is closed by the valve plates 3 (10, 11) can be stabilized.
Claims
1. A gate valve that opens or closes opening parts provided on both sides of a valve box with a valve plate arranged inside the valve box, comprising:
- a valve rod that is connected to the valve plate and is supported to be able to move upward or downward and tilt inside the valve box;
- a drive mechanism that is provided outside the valve box and moves the valve rod upward or downward by a predetermined stroke and tilts the valve rod;
- a stopper mechanism that includes a spring return type stopper pin provided in middle of the stroke of the drive mechanism, and in which, when compressed air is supplied, a pin rod of the stopper pin moves forward in a horizontal direction orthogonal to a stroke direction of the valve rod against a spring force of a spring, and a cam plate connected to the valve rod or a load receiving roller attached to the cam plate collides with the pin rod to regulate an upward movement of the valve rod, and, on the other hand, when the supply of the compressed air is stopped, the pin rod moves backward in the horizontal direction due to a reaction force of the spring, so that the cam plate or the load receiving roller does not collide with the pin rod and the regulation on the upward movement of the valve rod is released; and
- a vibration reducing device that reduces vibration generated when the valve rod is operated by the drive mechanism.
2. The gate valve according to claim 1, wherein
- as the vibration reducing device, the pin rod of the stopper pin is subjected to slit-processing or counterbore-processing to reduce an impact during a collision with the cam plate or the load receiving roller.
3. The gate valve according to claim 1, wherein
- as the vibration reducing device, a delay circuit is provided that sets a speed, at which the valve plate starts to move away from a valve seat surface of the valve box when the valve is opened, to a low speed.
4. The gate valve according to claim 1, wherein
- a valve plate surface of the valve plate tilts such that an O-ring fixed to the valve plate is parallelly pressed against a valve seat.
5. The gate valve according to claim 1, wherein
- the opening parts (7, 8) are a pair of openings, which are a first opening part and a second opening part, and arranged in parallel to face each other,
- the valve plate is configured with a pair of valve surfaces (10, 11), which are first and second valve surfaces and arranged in parallel to face one of the opening parts wherein the first valve surface (10) corresponds to the first opening part (7) and the second valve surface (11) corresponds to the second opening part (8), and each of the valve surfaces is surrendered with an elastic seal material,
- the predetermined stroke by the drive mechanism is to linearly move the valve rod up to a height of the first and second opening parts such that the first and second opening parts and the valve surfaces are positioned at a same height, and next, to tile the valve rod toward one of the first and second opening parts to close the opening with the seal material wherein the one of the first and second opening parts is determined by higher resistance of the seal material being required than the other of the first and second opening parts.
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Type: Grant
Filed: Mar 11, 2020
Date of Patent: Sep 14, 2021
Patent Publication Number: 20200355275
Assignee: IRIE KOKEN CO., LTD. (Tokyo)
Inventors: Manabu Yabe (Tokyo), Shinya Yamaguchi (Tokyo), Yusuke Suga (Tokyo)
Primary Examiner: Minh Q Le
Application Number: 16/815,692
International Classification: F16K 1/30 (20060101); F16K 3/02 (20060101); F16K 47/02 (20060101); F16K 3/34 (20060101);